On this Sunday, like virtually every Sunday afternoon for the last 2 1/2 years, Bill and Kelly Putnam plan to visit a Far North Dallas nursing home.

Not to go in, but rather to stand on the sidewalk outside with big protest signs.

Their protest is partly against Signature Pointe on the Lake, where Kelly’s 80-year-old father died in October 2008. But it’s also aimed at lawsuit restrictions in Texas, which they say put them on the sidewalk instead of in a courthouse.

“I never in my wildest dreams thought I would ever, ever be out here,” Kelly, 54, told me last Sunday as she wrestled a 4-by-4-foot placard against a hot, blustery wind.

Her sign said: “Tort Reform Allowed Signature Pointe — To Kill Dad — To Lie About It — Then Get Away With It.”

Bill owns a business installing audiovisual equipment. Kelly is a teacher. The Frisco residents identify themselves as conservative Reagan Republicans. Bill still considers himself a supporter of lawsuit limits.

“But you don’t throw the baby out with the bath water,” he said. “Frivolous lawsuits are one thing, but legitimate ones need to be heard. And they’re not.”

Kelly’s father, Charles Caldwell, went to Signature Pointe for rehab after surgery to insert a feeding tube in his stomach. Parkinson’s disease had taken his ability to swallow.

With family watching, nurses tried to pour a batch of liquid medicines into the feeding tube. And three times, it refused to go in. Nurses then used a syringe to force it in, Bill said.

Caldwell immediately began to struggle. The Putnams say it was obvious the fluid wasn’t forced into his stomach but rather up his esophagus and into the lungs.

It was an awful, traumatic scene. “He drowned in front of us,” Kelly said.

“But according to them,” Bill added, nodding over to the nursing home, “nothing happened in that room at all — just a natural cause of death.”

The Putnams contend that the state investigation was a superficial joke, relying almost totally on the nursing home’s version of events.

And that’s when they began to think about a lawsuit. “It was never about money,” Kelly said. “It’s about accountability. It’s about standing up for what’s right.”

But when they consulted with attorneys, they heard the same story over and over. Sorry, the lawyers said, but we don’t take nursing-home cases anymore.

Lawsuit changesapproved by the Texas Legislature in 2003 capped noneconomic damages at $250,000. And since elderly, infirm nursing-home residents can’t show loss of earnings or other economic damages, that $250,000 becomes the most they can receive.

Mounting a medical malpractice case is expensive and time-consuming, and lawyers say they simply can’t afford to pursue a case with a maximum award of $250,000. So the threat of lawsuits against Texas nursing homes has virtually disappeared — along with their incentive for quality care.

Consumer advocate N. Alex Winslow of Texas Watch said medical malpractice restrictions are “generally awful” in Texas, but their effect on nursing-home residents is “acutely despicable.”

“We’re talking about the most vulnerable in our society — the elderly and disabled. We should be doing everything in our power to protect them,” Winslow said.

He said he knows of no study to document a decline in nursing-home quality, but he is confident that lawsuit caps have caused it. “It has to have,” he said. “Absent the possibility of being held accountable, it’s human nature to start cutting corners.”

In addition to their Sunday afternoon protests, the Putnams say they’re hoping to undo some lawsuit restrictions when the Legislature meets in two years. “If no one fights it, it’s never going to change,” Bill said.

Signature Pointe’s Wolfe said his facility receives the highest-quality ratings and ranks high on resident satisfaction. “I’m really sorry about their dad,” he said. “We have tried to take the high road on this. We understand that what they are going through is grief.”

The Putnams say they don’t want sympathy. They want their day in court.

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About Steve Blow

Career track: Worked as a reporter at the Fort Worth Press and the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Joined The Dallas Morning News in 1978. Worked as a reporter until 1989, when I began writing the column.

Most unforgettable experience on the job: Probably flying in a fighter jet with the Blue Angels. Somewhere in the midst of that looping, zooming, twirling flight, I remember thinking, "I love my job."

Something people don't know about me: In college, I worked in a funeral home. (It was more lively than you might expect.)

If I had two spare hours, I would: See a movie, preferably one with lots of laughs and not a single gun battle.

The secret of a good news column is: Introduce the reader to a person worth knowing. Or put into words the reader's own thoughts. Or best of all, offer a view that differs from the reader's, but in a way that intrigues, not antagonizes.